Undergraduate research

Undergraduate and Master’s students in Physics, Mathematics, or Astronomy with research initiative and a genuine interest in theoretical and mathematical astrophysics are encouraged to contact me to discuss their own ideas for possible projects. I usually work with students in the Summer of their Honours year (3rd year) onwards, and I encourage Pre-Honours students to undertake a Summer SLICC as a meaningful preparation to subsequent research activities.

Students in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences with research interests at the interface with Science are also most welcome. Note that the Library and Archives of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh have much to offer – from the records of the activities of the Scottish ‘Female Computers’ to the Crawford Collection, which contains many first editions of major works in the history of Astronomy and related fields.

Two Summer Research Programmes at the University of Edinburgh are open to both internal and, occasionally, external undergraduate students, upon competitive admission

In alternative to the College and School-funded career development scholarships, financial support can be obtained via the following schemes (note that the application deadlines are usually in January-February for positions starting in June-July of the same calendar year). The typical project duration is 6-12 weeks, depending on the funding source. All schemes require the student to assume a leading role in preparing the application, in collaboration with the supervisor.

For students currently enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, the following opportunities are also available as an integral part of their degree programmes

and some opportunities to gain international research experience over the Summer are described here; I wish to highlight